Taunton School Committee approves new K-8 math curriculum to align with Common Core standards

Wednesday

May 21, 2014 at 9:33 PMMay 23, 2014 at 6:27 AM

Marc Larocque Enterprise Staff Writer @Enterprise_Marc

TAUNTON — Public school students will now learn math in a new way under a revised curriculum passed by the School Committee on Wednesday night. The revision is an effort align the district’s teaching methods with the Common Core standards.

The new curriculum, which will go into effect after the summer break, uses a program called “enVision,” published by Pearson for kindergarten through sixth grade, and a publication called “Mathematics” by Holt McDougal for seventh and eighth grades. The new programs were piloted in more than 40 classrooms in the district last year, after the formation of a mathematics task force.

The revised math curriculum will come at a cost of $550,000, which includes professional development for teachers, said Superintendent Julie Hackett. The district is dropping the “Everyday Math” program by McDougal Littell, which it used in recent years.

School Committee member Carol Doherty said that the new curriculum implementation comes after “one of the most comprehensive curriculum review processes we’ve had” to date. Doherty said that she believes the school should pursue more electronic-based text more as it moves into the future.

“This is an excellent update to our math curriculum,” said School Committee member David Souza.

Mary Macdougall, a seventh-grade teacher at Parker Middle School, was part of the task force behind the pilot and review process.

“The main thing we were looking for was curriculum aligned with Common Core (state standards),” Macdougall said. “I think it’s great. It’s the way everyone is headed. The teachers did a nice job with it, and used it all year long with few issues.”

Other programs that were piloted as part of the curriculum selection process included Stepping Stones by Origo, Math in Focus — Singapore Math by Cavendish, and Big Ideas Math by Big Ideas.

Hackett said that the teachers “can’t wait” to get started this summer with the new books and materials as part of the new curriculum.

Assistant Superintendent Chris Scully made a presentation on the new math program. Scully said that the new curriculum being implemented strongly encourages digital work, while still being based on a textbook and related materials. Members of the School Committee asked him about completely computer-based curricula, which he said the school district wasn’t quite ready for.

“The next math series we recommend will probably much more resemble that,” Scully said. “We felt we are at transition point. One (series) we looked at was almost entirely on a digital platform. … They were still a little underwritten. You didn’t have the wealth of resources you did with the published edition. With the McDougal series … it’s really encouraging students who have access at home to keep their book at school. Make sure we have resources to provide every student what we need. But for those who can access, let them do that.”

Hackett also provided a fiscal 2015 budget update during Wednesday night’s meeting. The district has a proposed $77 million budget, which will be presented in further detail during a June 1 meeting.

“Should it be the city’s intent to limit our appropriation to the (state) Chapter 70 aid increase alone, reductions will be necessary,” Hackett said in her superintendent’s report. “As a reminder, many of the strategic priorities we included in the FY 2015 Preliminary Budget address health, wellness and social and emotional issues in our schools. If we receive inadequate funding, it appears likely that we will need to eliminate from our final budget proposed positions that are desperately needed, such as additional guidance counselors, community facilitators, a peer mediation coordinator and positive behavioral supports and interventions, among others.”

Taunton’s city government is expected to hold a budget presentation during the City Council meeting this coming Tuesday.

The Taunton School Committee also held an executive session on Wednesday night, which they stated was for the purpose of discussing negotiations with the Taunton Administrators Association, and for the purpose of discussing a legal matter pertaining to Taunton High School.